Hi guys, I have just introduced myself in the past week and promised to put some pictures up, so here we go!

My name is Coz Lentakis and I'm from Brisbane, Australia. I've been struggling with my weight since my childhood and have decided it was time to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Since I left school in 2003, I have ballooned to 100+ kgs twice before managing to get back down to 80 kgs both times. Unfortunately, I find myself to eat according to emotion and once I start, the gym goes out the window and the kilos pile up. For example, I'll start with a few pictures from late '05, where I was in pretty excellent shape.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/coznew.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/P1010090.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/P1010089.jpg

Now this was the best shape that I've been in since I left high school. I was, at one point, under 10% bodyfat and weighing just over 75kg when I was playing representative soccer in 2001/2002. I have no digital images of that though. Fast forward to 2007, and I'm weighing well over 100kg. 104, in fact.

I turned 21 on the 17th of September and it ws on that day I vowed I would not let myself live like this any more. What I did was dust off the gym membership card and headed straight towards a healthy lifestyle. Thesed pictures were taken on the 18th of September and you can see the difference!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/P9181495.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/P9181496.jpg

That was at 104 kgs.

Over the next month I've maintained my goal of going to the gym at least three times a week (for weights. at least 4 days cardio) and a healthy eating lifestyle. As a result I am down to 98kg as of the 16th of October haved gained muscle and definately lost fat. These pictures were taken today (10/20/07) and I couldn't be happier.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/IMG_0513.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/IMG_0514.jpg

Sorry about the angle on the last one. My old man is a terrible photograph and this is his idea of side on :lol:.

So that's the beginning of something I hope to continue for the rerst of my life! I'll be posting my diet and workout habits with a new set of photos each week.

Just to follow up, my usual day's diet would include...

6am - 30g Whey Protein Shake (water only)
8am - Chicken soup (noodles in soup)
1030am - Handful of almonds (10 to be exact)
1pm - 2x Tuna sushi
3pm - Handful of almonds (10)

Workout at 6pm-730pm

8pm - 200-300g steak and salad (no dressing)

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My cheat days have consisted of me substituting sushi for a kid's meal at KFC or chinese food for dinner. Since I began my new lifestyle I have only cheated twice.

The strange meal times are due to my long hours at work. I am awake at 6am each morning (or try to be) to throw down a shake and let it digest before I get to work. I leave for work each day at 730am to arrive by 8. That's when I throw the soup on. My tea breaks are at 1030am and 3pm and my lunch is at 1. I finish work around 5-515pm and its straight to the gym from there.

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A usual workout includes the following.

15mins cardio on a crosstrainer.
1hr of weights on the allocated bodypart for the day
15 mins cardio on crosstrainer.

I realise that I should split cardio and weights up each day but I am still training myself to wake up early enough to go for a decent run. I split the cardio because i find that I perform better than if I where to do a big block before my workout. The only day that I wont do cardio is when I'm training my legs.

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My routine up to now has been

Monday - Off (8 ball night)
Tuesday - Chest / Triceps
Wednesday - Back / Biceps
Thursday - Shoulders / Neck
Friday - Legs and usually Chest / Triceps once more
Saturday / Sunday - at least half an hour of cardio on one day, the other day off

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What I plan it to be, now that 8 ball has wrapped up

Monday - Chest / Triceps
Tuesday - Back / Biceps
Wednesday - Cardio only
Thursday - Shoulders / Neck
Friday - Legs
Saturday / Sunday - As before

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Just one question before I finish for today ... I have noticed from my pictures BIG differences between my left and right side of my body. Should I dedicate a day to where I only train my left side and try and let it catch up? Or is there a better way to go? Personally, I'm stumped with this one. I don't want to look like an idiot. Thanks guys.

Well yesterday's workout was one of my toughest yet! I had a crappy day at work, so I decided to take it out on myself at the gym, and how...

Cardio - 20 mins on crosstrainer @10mph (16km/h) on level 10, burning 300 kalories

Weights (Chest / Triceps)
Drop sets

Barbell flat bench press @ 12/10/10/8

Barbell incline bench press @ 12/10/8/8

Assisted Dips @ 12/10/8/8

Dumbell Flyes @ 12/10/8/8

Triceps Extensions (Smith machine) @ 12/10/8/8

A second Cardio as before.

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I would appreciate any feedback so that I can know if I am doing anything wrong, but I am feeling great at the moment and am making gains in every department!

I would like some replies, but hey, I'm happy to keep updating this myself.

Back / Biceps today!

20 mins cardio on cross trainer as yesterday

Seated Rows 12/10/8/8

Assisted Pull-Ups 12/10/8/2 (couldn't finish last set. I fell off the bar)

Dumbell Shrugs 12/10/10/8

Middle Back Shrug (lying) 12/10/10/8

Incline Bench Pull 12/10/10/8

Barbell Bicep Curls (Supported) 12/10/8/6

Lat Pulldowns 12/10/8/8

20 mins cardio as before.

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I'm sore this morning...

Well done mate great progress.
What is your ideal body?
What are you trying to get out of training?

Well done mate great progress.
What is your ideal body?
What are you trying to get out of training?

Thanks leandom. My ideal body would have to be around 80kg w/ <10% bf. I'dl ike to be toned, but not too bulked up. I think 80kg is around the perfect weight for me. I don't want to compare myself to anybody because if I don't get to that point then I will be disappointed. I'm avoiding disappointment at all costs.

The main reason for my training is that I need to be fit for touch football season next year. I don't want to be the guy that bombs after about five minutes because he's unfit.

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Over the past three days I have made some very important discoveries, made some mistakes that I know I will learn from and have progressed to a point that I hadn't in my prime. Let's just say that cardio has never been my best friend, but I'm learning to enjoyit now. What I aim for these days is 10km in 20mins on the cross trainer twice daily and at the moment I'm getting there. Once it starts to become too easy then I just turn it up a couple of levels.

Wednesday was my shoulder workout and I'd have to say that I was pretty impressed with myself. In total, I worked out for about 45 minutes and I'm now ready to throw another 2.5kgs on top of what I'm doing for next week.

Thursday was my legs and abs workout. The biggest mistake of my week was thursday as it felt like I just couldn't finish what I was doing. Never have I had to deal with that, but try performing a succesful, 1 minute bridge after you've done heavy squats twenty minutes beforehand and I'll shake your hand. My leg workouts were okay, no problem there, but I STRUGGLED with my abs as a consequence. I believe that from next week I will do my abs the same night as my shoulders so that I can perform to a higher standard. In fact, I'm looking forward to it so that I can just focus on my legs on a Thursday from there on in.

Thursday night was my cheat night (I like to eat crappy food while I watch Heroes, don't ask me why) and I decided on just absolutely GORGING myself for the first time since I started. Big mistake. I had two massive bowls of spagghetti bolognese and a full garlic bread to myself and I'll tell you now, it wasn't pleasant. For the next half hour, I felt my stomach churning and I knew I was going to hurl. As soon as the Heroes credits came up on the screen, I made a mad dash for the bathroom and tasted my dinner for a second time. Disgusting, I know, but worth it. I've now learnt that my stomach just can't handle that amount of food in one sitting. The funny thing is, six weeks ago I wouldn't haved even blinked at that.

Friday was my favourite workout this week. Me and my training partner did a chest/back session and supersetted the whole thing. I got the idea from that article on Arnie on the forums here and I have to tell you, I was PUMPED last night. Shirts that used to be tight around the stomach were tight around my chest and back and it felt GOOOD. When I'm able to slip on a shirt in the morning after a rest day and feel like that, I'll know I've achieved something.

I watched "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" last night and that was motivational. I think I'm going to surround myself with movies such as this and Rocky for when I'm lacking in the motivation department because, even though it was around 1am when I finished watching it, I was ready to go back to the gym right there and then.

Today is a rest day, and I've got plenty of cardio and ball sports organised for tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

WoW man thats awesome work! Definitely tell the difference between the pics. Keep up what your doing. Only a couple of things that I picked up from others (when I posted threads in Newbie section) they told me to avoid cardio and weights on the same day unless they are seperated by at least 5 - 8 hours. Also try to do weights before cardio if your going to do it as cardio releases some kind of acid (got no clue about it) and it hurts muscle development. And my favourite thing that I have learnt is that you can do abs 7 days a week :D

But keep going with this routine as it has paid massive dividends so far. And another coincidence (other then both being from Australia) is that I reliased on my 21st birthday (May 29th) that I was too big when I couldn't fit into my shirt and had to force it on. Plus I'm doing this so I can play indoor footy next year (and football outside the year after)

Best of luck mate!

Thanks dezi. The only reason why I'm doing cardio & weights together is because I just CANT get up early enough in the morning. Me and my housemate are going to give it a trial run tomorrow morning to see how we go.

Also, I was born in NZ lol. I'll keep a watch of you and see how you go man. It's good to have someone similar to watch and compare workouts with!

WoW man thats awesome work! Definitely tell the difference between the pics. Keep up what your doing. Only a couple of things that I picked up from others (when I posted threads in Newbie section) they told me to avoid cardio and weights on the same day unless they are seperated by at least 5 - 8 hours. Also try to do weights before cardio if your going to do it as cardio releases some kind of acid (got no clue about it) and it hurts muscle development. And my favourite thing that I have learnt is that you can do abs 7 days a week :D

But keep going with this routine as it has paid massive dividends so far. And another coincidence (other then both being from Australia) is that I reliased on my 21st birthday (May 29th) that I was too big when I couldn't fit into my shirt and had to force it on. Plus I'm doing this so I can play indoor footy next year (and football outside the year after)

Best of luck mate!

Chad Waterbury's 10x3 for fat loss program calls for cardio immiediately following a weight routine. Course, it is only 10 - 15 minutes of HITT.

From what i have gathered, the body is more in a state to burn fat AFTER a weight lifting routine.

HUGE difference there, great job!

I have a question, kinda unrelated though. Where did you get the hat your wearing in the first pic? I have been looking for that EXACT hat size 7.5 (or flex fit if thats all I can get) and haven't been able to find it anywhere!

Hi guys. I havent been around the last month or so, but that's because we changed internet servers over at home and have been having so problems.

Don't worry, I'm still going strong and will be updating sometime later tonight. Thanks!

ps - sevenatenine, i havent seen that hat in years. i bought it in '03 and couldnt find another after i lost it. i live in Oz though so yeah.

Carbon,

what gym you going to in Brisbane? I go to Fitness First on Brunswick Street

New photos

These were taken on 11/17/07. I think I've made some big changes in just two months and I'm pretty impressed with myself.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/PB171803.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Jerichohol/PB171802.jpg

Yeah, they're the same shorts as the first photo so I could tell how I'm changing a bit easier, We've figured out a system where I get the same angle for every shot now so it should be quite a bit more consistent.

Cookem, I live on the Southside so I go to Zest at Cleveland. It's pretty good - Jan to March is a bit packed, but the New years Resolutioners tend to drop off pretty quickly.

I've just done 12 weeks on my original workout program and had a four day break so tonight I started a max OT program (found on this site). I'm feeling sore as anything right now and it's only ben one session.

Top work bro!!! Keep droppin that weight at that rate and in 6 months your gonna look mad!!! I wish I could say the same about myself but I only dropped about half a kilo a week over the last 4 weeks. Exams and working 40 hours a week took a toll on me but now I am back into the thick of things (already down a kilo and its only late Tuesday)

You keep impressin me everytime you post pics, unfortunately I won't be posting pics til I believe I deserve to. Keep up the top work and hope to see you continue on this glorious journey!!!

Yeah man, I haven't really lost any weight, but in the last month my waist has gone from 97cm to 87cm and I've had to go buy heaps of new clothes. That's the only gay thing about losing weight - spending heaps of money on clothes.

I guess I'm gaining muscle at the same rate I'm losing fat.

I've now moved from the crosstrainer to the treadmill and MAN it's hard. I'm running at 9km/h for twenty minutes and I'm a sweaty / jelly-legged mess. This week, after twelve weeks, I've switched my workout from what it was (in posts above) and have moved on to MAX OT. Feels good to be lifting heavier, but I'm in quite a bit of pain at the moment.

Saturday's are my favourite day - the gym is empty so that gives me and my workout partner to have some fun - we race. We start each session with 10 mins on the treadmill to get our hearts going (start at 8km/h and move up 0.5km/h every 30sec till we are practically sprinting). We then move over to the weights area and do supersets mixing up shoulder press / dumbell bench press / hammer curls / pushups etc with ab exercises with a little motivation. We race each other through each superset and the loser has to do a set amount of pushups / situps. By the end of our session (usually 1hr - 1.5 hr) we're exhausted and almost dry retching. I love it!

I think that puts me in good stead. Can't wait to post the next pics!